It’s easy being green: The best apps to reduce your carbon footprint

27 Mar 2017

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With Earth hour having celebrated its 10th year, more people than ever are becoming conscious of the importance of environmental sustainability. In today’s fast-paced world though, we sometimes get too caught up in the rush to consider the environmental impacts of all the little things we do in daily life. To help bring out the greenie in you, we put together a list of apps that make green living a cinch.

Shop Ethical!

Shop Ethical! tells you how the brands you shop for are responding to issues like environmental problems, employee safety and fair wages. The comprehensive database handles everything from household products, food and drink, clothing, electronics and more – shopping ethically is made easy. Something as simple as choosing to buy from ethical companies sends a strong message of support for industries to employ more ethical practices.

RecycleSmart

Built in collaboration with Planet Ark, RecycleSmart is a comprehensive recycling app that categorises waste materials from more than 180 household items and shows you where you can recycle locally. The app also has an integrated function for reporting problems related to waste to your local council.

With a wealth of information, intuitive interface and capacity for two-way engagement between residents, businesses and Councils, RecycleSmart is opens pathways between you and a greener lifestyle.

CarbonTrack

This one is especially handy for planning business trips. Carbon Tracker gives you a snapshot of your potential carbon footprint across different forms of transport as a handy way to minimise your CO2 emissions. Just by following simple instructions onscreen, you can effectively turn your trip into an eco-friendly endeavour.

Oroeco

Oroeco is a fun little app that turns eco-friendly living into a kind of game. This intuitive app calculates your carbon footprint based on your home energy, transport, diet, shopping and entertainment before offering helpful, personalised tips on how to lower your environmental impact. As you do, you can earn badges and even Climate Champion status, while comparing your progress with friends and family. Saving the environment made is made even more fun.

love your leftovers

At some point in our lives we’ve all thrown out leftover dinner from the night before, or food that instilled us with buyer’s remorse. It seems like a miniscule act for any of us to make alone, but an astronomical amount of the world’s waste comes from excess food, generating higher carbon emissions.

That’s where Love Your Leftovers comes in – this app not only helps you find delicious recipes that transform excess food into culinary delights, but it also helps you plan your shopping. This will help you end up with less excess food to begin with and also save money while you help the earth.

While you’re saving the planet with these apps, you can also save time and stay on top of your usage with the very handy My Optus app.